T. Rowe Price Posts Higher Profits

Investment manager T. Rowe Price reported a 22% increase in first-quarter profit, helped by a rise in investment advisory revenues.

The Baltimore-based company said first-quarter net income rose to $94.3 million, or 69 cents a share, compared with $77.3 million, or 58 cents a share, a year earlier.

Net revenue rose to a record $357.1 million from $305.7 million a year earlier. Investment advisory fees, the biggest component of revenue, totaled $289.1 million, up 18% from $245.1 million a year earlier.

Assets under management rose 17% to a record $235.9 billion at the end of the quarter, from $201.0 billion a year earlier.

Mutual fund assets under management at the end of March were $148.3 billion, up $2.8 billion from the beginning of 2005.

George Roche, chairman and chief executive, said publicly that the company would wait until next year to begin expensing stock options, now that the Securities and Exchange Commission has approved a delay in the requirement for certain companies. Before the SEC's recent ruling, companies were expected to begin expensing options in the second half of 2005.